COP29 from the Perspective of a Student Researcher

My name is Gie Wilson, and I am the Global Student Sustainability Ambassador for the Center for the Study of Global Change. I have worked within IU Global for three years, primarily on initiatives that promote engagement with, and education about, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across the Indiana University community. I am also a senior undergraduate student studying Environmental and Sustainability Studies at IU Bloomington with research focuses on climate change, environmental law, climate litigation, and environmental health.

When I started at IU Global, my first task was to interview a professor who served as a faculty advisor for a student delegate who did research at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland. I still remember those feelings of awe, mixed with some intimidation, at getting to speak with two people who were doing the real work that I could only dream about.

COP29, 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference, is a two weeklong event convenes all nations to discuss climate change with the hope of achieving an agreement to create more ambitious climate action. It also serves as the annual meeting place for the forefront advocates, scholars, and stakeholders of climate change civil society from across sectors and around the globe. This year, it was held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

But before we get to what happened at COP29 from the perspective of a student researcher, I should start with how I this all came to fruition. I decided to apply to be a delegate in the spring of 2024 after attending a callout meeting with the professors who lead the program, Dr. Jessica O’Reilly and Professor Kelly Eskew, and the student delegates who had attended COP28 a few months prior in Dubai.

Around this time, I was also determining the subject of my honors thesis. I wanted a subject which included elements of citizen empowerment and action, while incorporating my future career interest in environmentally affiliated law. I decided to focus on climate litigation after discovering intriguing opportunity areas developing internationally in this emerging field. Additionally, there is significant variance within this topic, from holding governments accountable for their international commitments, to suing corporations for their responsibility in the climate crisis. Specifically, I focused on the potential applications of litigation as an instrument of driving accountability and transparency in international climate governance. COP29 offered an invaluable opportunity to speak with academics studying the field, but also people directly taking action as plaintiffs or lawyers, at both national and international levels. 

It was through my coursework that I had the academic background needed to be proficient in my research, and my experience at IU Global that gave me the confidence and professional skills needed take on the rigorous process of preparing to attend COP29. I was honored to be selected as one of the 16-person delegation of undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students, who Dr. O’Reilly introduced to the field of international climate governance in an academic course ahead of the actual trip to Azerbaijan.

I attended the second week of COP29 with 7 other student delegates from IU, who had a diverse array of backgrounds and research topics. When we left the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies building to begin the 30+ hours of travel to Baku, Azerbaijan, I admittedly knew little to nothing about these other IU delegates nor what it would be like once we got there. When we finally arrived early on Sunday morning, we rubbed our weary eyes and peered from the bus windows at this new country which excels in weaving history with modernity. It was then that we first saw Baku Olympic stadium, the venue of COP29. It wasn’t until the next morning that we got to actually explore what that meant.

Every UNFCCC COP is organized into two categories, the Blue Zone and the Green Zone. The Blue Zone is only accessible to those with credentials, largely party delegates, researchers, government officials, media, diplomats, and volunteer staff. This is where our delegation spent most of its time. The Green Zone on the other hand is open to all, with an entrance fee, and is a place for civil society to thrive.

In the Blue Zone there were three types of events we went to.  

First, side events. These were more formal, longer events–predominantly panels of experts. Pavilion events brought together a wide variety of activities on behalf of nations, nonprofits, businesses, and coalitions at booths in the heart of the Blue Zone. These pavilions also often had attractions which almost turned wandering around the space into a scavenger hunt, from free coffee in the UK pavilion to pictures with a statue of Moo Deng in the Singapore pavilion.

Finally, plenary sessions: these are the largest and most exclusive events where delegates come together to read statements on issues, make decisions, and engage in discussion on behalf of their UN member states. I only attended one of these sessions, the People’s Plenary, which was the most unique in the sense that it was the only citizen- driven event. This was unique as the other plenary sessions are more formal events led by support staff of the host country and UN officials. It was filled with chants surrounding some of the biggest justice issues in modern climate talks. This includes calling for increased funding for climate finance, specifically from the Global North who led global emissions historically, yet the Global South tends to be the most vulnerable to harm from climate change. Additionally, calls to strive to keep temperature increase below the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal created in the Paris Agreement at COP21 in 2015, a vital international climate treaty.  These chants were predominantly led by citizens of nations in the Global South, which was shown through the passion in each word they yelled, pumping their fists and waving signs. For me, it was the moment all of the studies and data came off the page, and I began to see the people who I was working with and learning from to take on the world’s largest crisis, and the consequences should we fail. This vibrant moment was a rare display of protest during the conference, which otherwise was only permissible in very limited spaces.

Left: the Olympic Stadium decorated for COP29. Right: delegates at the People’s Plenary.

While all of these events were incredibly helpful for my own understanding of climate action and policy on the international scale, perhaps the most vital part of my research from this experience were my interviews. I conducted 15 interviews with lawyers, litigants, plaintiffs, politicians, academics, advocates, and government officials from around the world over the course of the 5 days I attended COP29.  These conversations guided my research, which I am continuing this spring as my honors thesis, and opened my eyes to a whole new side of what law can be in the context of climate action.  While interviews were the part of the experience that made me most apprehensive before I left, I found that it was in hindsight one of my favorite memories, and what I walked away feeling the proudest of.

Now that I have returned to the States, I can confidently say that the other IU delegates I travelled with have become close friends. We commiserated and celebrated sitting on the floor of the Baku Olympic stadium, surrounded by other exhausted and exhilarated researchers and advocates from around the world, and walking through winding ancient streets. I’ve never heard so many different languages in one place, and it has opened my eyes to a whole new world to be found through global experiences, a world I intend to explore in the future. 

COP29 was never an opportunity I anticipated for myself. I am not from a family of world travelers, nor do I have extensive international experience. My only other significant global travel was in the summer of 2023 when I studied abroad in Denmark with the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs as part of a comparative nonprofit sector course. While my time in Copenhagen was greatly beneficial and fundamentally changed my personal and academic trajectory, it was entirely different from my trip to Azerbaijan, which proved to be much more rigorous, yet equally inspiring.

I think this difference came from the pre-trip preparation and being able to take the liberty of choosing my own research topic. I was also representing IU on the international scale at COP. Being a student from not only the Global North, but even more specifically the Midwest, changes how I am perceived and the spaces I am let into. While every community will be or currently is being affected by climate change, the threat in the Midwest is much less severe as compared to those to Pacific Islanders for example who face threats to not only their environment, but they livelihoods, culture, and communities.  Climate change can be such an inherently personal issue, so when we discuss the projected harms and solutions to the problem, it is vital to recognize the perspective we are coming from. I was honored to represent IU, and to play my part in upholding such an internationally prestigious reputation thanks to all the hard work of the delegates that have come before me and the professors who lead the program, as well as countless others. 

This experience felt like a culmination of my time at IU, from my work with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals at IU Global to my coursework which gave me a myriad of lessons I pulled on. None of this would have been possible without the support of the aforementioned staff and students in the COP29 program, the IU Political and Civic Engagement Program (PACE), the IU Integrated Program in the Environment (IPE), and the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. 

As I go forward with my career, I intend to take all those new lessons from my time at COP29 with me to contribute a globally conscious and sustainable mindset to my future work and communities, in whatever form that might take.